Better coffee... cafetière or pod?

[Surprisedtosaytheleast]

Definitely not doing beans. This is the choice cafetière or pod.

In your opinion.... which makes best coffee?

TIA!

As an Italian I would say, stove top always the best, but a bit of a faff, we have several sizes but never use them now. Next comes Nespresso or similar, but use their own pods which are recyclable. Cafetiere always seems too weak to me, but I do like a very strong coffee. I always have 8+ strength in Nespresso.

We love big cups of coffee so got a filter machine. It's better than either cafetiere or pods.

Aeropress sounds interesting, I'll have to look into that.

The Aeropress animation I linked seems to be for the US market, where they make something more espresso-like and then add water. Over here it's more usual to fill the whole tube with hot water and make a mug of something that's in between a filter coffee and an espresso.

The Aeropress is way, way better than a cafetiere, much tastier coffee and easier to dispose of the grounds and clean, the used pellet goes straight in the compost caddy, quick swish under the tap, job done, no grounds down the drain or in the sink.

We're getting a small compost bin, so it's good to hear the grounds can go into the compost. (Well, compost bin has been ordered, still no delivery date, though.)

We put the grounds from the cafetière on the garden.

Cafetière. But you do have to make it from ground coffee beans (which I supposed you could buy ground), but we have a grinder that grinds a cup or a whole pots worth of beans fresh, which is super simple. I don't particularly like aeropress as it's filtered and takes a bit like plastic.

Definitely not the pods. I've never had a worse cup of coffee and it was from one of the fancy expensive ones. Still tastes like plastic.

Those of you recommending an aeropress, help! I have one collecting dust at the back of a cupboard. I find I make tar not coffee! What should I be doing? I add the same amount of coffee and water as my stove pot but I can stand my spoon in it!

Sounds as if your coffee is too finely ground?

LittleMissnotLittleMrs Sounds as if you're using too much coffee as well. Do you still have the scoop that came with it? Try following the instructions saraclara linked to.
That actually looks a bit weak to me (I'd probably use 2 scoops) but I do like to add freshly boiled water to espresso so I get a hotter cup of coffee.

We have cafetières of differing sizes, and a milk frother. We pour it all out quickly, after a minute or so, to get the best flavour. I’ve had pod coffee at friends’ houses, always disappointing IMO. Our grounds go in the compost.

Yes - too much coffee also. I don't use an aeropress but I'd imagine you need less because you're pouring water rather than forcing steam through the grounds.

The joy of the aeropress is the tunability.

You can choose the depth of the roast (1-5) on the packet, the size of the grounds, the quantity, the amount of water, and temperature, the brew time.

I use a 1 1/2 scoops of medium roast and 150 seconds brew time.

Technique:
Assemble the two cylinder parts so the bung is on 5, wet a filter and place it in the cap.
Stand the aeropress up, add the grounds and barely cover with 85 Deg water, stir and leave for 3 secs, add the rest of the water ( to taste/ strength) stir briefly and screw the cap on, express left over air, wait 120 secs. Flip and squeeze hard ( I've shattered cups before).

I bought my coffee-mad boss an Aeropress for Christmas, am delighted to see so much love for it here! He raves about it but I wasn't sure if he was just being polite! I think I might get one for myself now...

@LittleMissnotLittleMrs how much water are you putting in? I fill the tube almost up to the top, to make a mug full of coffee, rather than an espresso style drink. And it's basically similar to a filter coffee but much better. I don't understand how you're getting tar!

There are lots of YouTube videos about how to use it (though many are over the top serious, so look for the shorter ones!)

After trying most of the alternatives I settled on one of these.

Depends if you filter into your pot, or keep the coffee grounds in the bottom.

Advantages and disadvantages to either ...

Aeropress for years here too. Freshly ground, freshly roasted.

You roast your own beans, Potter??

Cafetière from your choice. Never ever seen anything good about pods - big ugly over designed expensive bulky unecessary. Seem to exist just to get suckers to spend money. Environmental nightmare also.
My fave is just a coffee drip filter. Small simple cheap and best (home) coffee ever.

Can anyone tell me if an aeropress gives a coffee similar to a stove top pot or is it more like coffee from a cafetiere?

My fave is just a coffee drip filter. Small simple cheap and best (home) coffee ever.

Yup.

That plus a manual grinder equals a few moments of bliss every morning.

(Am not religious, but in times of stress I'm not above including coffee bean suppliers in my prayers ...)

We drink coffee black (unless going somewhere with form for dodgy coffee). We toyed with a built in coffee machine - I enjoy experimenting with nespresso at hotels, but haven't felt the need to buy one -also don't like the waste.

Completely agree about grinding your own coffee (that way you can do different grinds for espresso and filter). It takes about 10 seconds of noise.

Our old Siemens filter machine must be about 25 years old (water is heated and drip-filters into a thermos jug). It is getting a lot of use with lockdown.

We use the stove espresso less, but this is also quite old. We have had to replace the rubber seal a couple of times (but they seem easier enough to purchase).

For the super-budget option we have an IKEA filter. It isn't as fine as a Melita paper filter, but it does the job. www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/oeverst-3-piece-metal-filter-coffee-set-stainless-steel-90360234/